Offseason Moves/Free agent signings

I like neal. But the injuries suck. He's a hard hitter, but the league cries about it like our 2010 days where the league added more rules of crying.

With that said, i still think we draft a safety within the first 4 picks.

 

I hear you but your reference of Farrior isn’t a great one as I don’t believe he was highly sought after even though he had first round pedigree. He only truly flourished after he came to Pittsburgh which proves my point. You don’t truly know who is gonna thrive in your system until you see them in it. The only questionable FA move by the Steelers this year is letting Sutton walk and replacing him with Peterson. We will see how that goes. The rest of the moves are great. We upgraded the O line both at starting five and depth. We replaced an inept ILB corp it can’t get any worse than what we had. We replaced a very average SS with a higher pedigree tone setting SS albeit on the downside of his career but still only 27. We brought Ogunjobi back who is solid not my favourite but there weren’t many better options out there and he should be better with a year under his belt and healthier. Outside of retaining Sutton and being mindful of the cap I am not sure what else you wanted the Steelers to do. I mean the ILB’s may not have the names of some of the other ILB’s that were on the market but they were just as productive if not more productive than a lot of them.

Keep in mind we still have to sign Highsmith long term. I still think they will make a couple more moves like Veteran Edge Depth and perhaps a slot WR. The Steelers have done way more than I expected and way more than years past in my mind. If they draft correctly this team should enter the new season with a better Defense than they had last year with a much stronger secondary and solid depth on the front seven with hopefully a high pedigree draft pick on the defensive line. On offense we will enter the season with a much better offensive line and more stable offensive line depth. The TE and WR position will be a wash unless we add to it between now and the beginning of the year. I am sure we will add to those positions at minimum for depth purposes.

You can’t just look at FA in a vacuum. You have to look at it in the context of our salary cap and also the draft. Have we improved the team without compromising our future and current salary cap? Have we set ourselves up to draft BPA? Have we strengthened our team at either some starting pistons and or depth? I believe we accomplished all of those tasks and the team is better at this time relative to last year at this time. To me that is a B at minimum until we see them actually play at which time the real grade is revealed.

 

I love the last 2 free agent signings for what they bring to the table.

Keanu Neal is a box safety and will allow Minka to play deep. I hated hearing all this talk about Patrick Peterson playing safety, because it ment the Minka was going to be at the line of scrimage help with run support instead of back deep where he belongs doing his Superman thing. I also think we will see Neal playing Dime LB more, now that we have 2 Bruisers starting at the ILB positions. of course if they land Trenton Simpson in the draft this would cure the coverage LB woes.

Breiden Fehoko is a nose tackle that can plug up the middle. Watching videos of Fehoko reminds me of why you have a NT on the field is to jam up the middle. I still am holding out hope the Steelers can land Mazi Smith, but now there is a plan B.

 

@oldschool are you a Penguins fan? Of you aren't this will make no sense, if your are it will. Look at the time between the 08 cup run that ended in a loss to the Red Wings and the lead up to the start of the 09 season as both am argument for and against what you are talking about. Pens GM Ray Shero fell in love with his own reputation for making blockbuster deals as evidenced by making the Hossa trade shortly before the deadline. He made no secret that resigning Hossa was the top priority and he'd get it done. Meanwhile Hometown boy and Fan favorite Ryan Malone who just wants to know he is in the plans doesn't get an offer and leaves. Shero proves his myth is greater than reality and loses Hossa to the Wings. He then proceeds to bring in Satan and Fedetenko and tried to convince fans they were better than they were. That mistake would plague them until the trade deadline where several last minute trades righted the ship and brought the Cup back.

 

I must disagree with this. Do You know how many times Edmunds has made a tackle 5 to 6 yards further than He should have, or how many times He wasn't in the spot because He was out covering nobody, or triple covering the wrong guy. I promise You ....the other players hollering at Him with their hands in the air.... weren't screaming.....Great Job Edmunds. Of course that stuff doesn't show up on stats ....but on the game tape.

 

You are correct. Farrior wasn't sought after highly because He was a 3-4 ILB, and they(the Jets)had just changed to a 4-3, and also at the time the Steelers ,and only two other teams played the 3-4. So We basically had no competition for Him at the time.

 

Bad lip reading again. Only this time you can’t even see their lips moving

 

Ok. We’ll agree to disagree. Farrior was a rock solid high pedigree free agent. He could have just as easily played a MLB for a 4-3 team in need as he did in our 3-4 system. But STD is correct that we were one of a few teams playing that base defense. The Steelers were zigging when everyone was zagging grabbing valuable players in our planned system that was building differently than the trend in the copy cat league. Smart! I hope they do that kind of forward thinking stuff again.

Great??? Overall? Nah…

I’ve agreed with everyone that the IOL pick-ups are very good (not “great”) and slight improvements *most likely* at ILB. I’m happy there.

The other pics are bargain hunting guys that won’t move the needle much at all and if any IMO. Pat Pete at CB again is a 50/50 boom or bust thing that I hope works out well of course. I never want us to do bad and will gladly take any razzing if our record looks better than I project.

So, yeah, I’m seeing this as C to C+ free agency period.

And I think you prove my point that their small spending cap is difficult to work with despite having rookie contracts at high paid positions. They should be so up against it and do full of holes and STILL haven’t signed Highsmith and cannot unless they restructure TJ and kick that can down the road right about when it comes time to pay KFP or our 3 other young stars. Shouldn’t be in this tight of a position. They will need about 5 mill for draft contracts and a few mill like they always do for an emergency pick-up for the inevitable injury replacement.

 

I’m not in as much as I really only have enough time in life to dedicate to one team. And much to my wife’s chagrin it’s waaay too much time. If there is one team that I pull for, it’s def the Pens. I’m sure this past era must have been glorious. When I was in my early twenties I watched a lot of the Lemieux and Jagr years - almost as fun.

I understand what most people are saying vs. my general opinion (the it seems reads more pessimistic than it actually is) in regards to movement in free agency. I know it’s more active now and that’s dictated by how far they have fallen from the top, unfortunate losses over a steady period of years, misses at high draft picks, and not having Ben’s deal stepping on their cap. In the position they find themselves in they MUST operate differently than they used to. It’s s CONFLUENCE (haha) and perfect storm of events that has motivated the free agent activity of the last two seasons. I’m just thinking their chess game is at a C level.

 

I don't think that is correct. Farrior was an outside linebacker with the Jets, first in a 3-4, then in a 4-3 his final season with them. He made the switch inside when the Steelers signed him.

 

Well you can’t have stars at every position. Like you said we are already paying three All Pros on defense so to have the cap space to go out and sign big name free agents isn’t going to happen. I don’t know how some of the teams do it....I think if they do it is often short lived and they mortgage their future so they are only relevant for a very short period of time. Outside of Highsmith I’m not sure what other future FA are coming up in the next few years that we have to pay. Najee or Friermuth maybe. Its a never ending wheel. Thats why keeping Highsmith may be a pipe dream. The only true way to build a team for sustainable success is through the draft and use free agency as a filler. If your one player away I can see spending big but outside of that it is hard to justify spending the big dollars as it often catches up to teams over time. Relative to the strengths in the draft and the Steelers limited cap space I definitely give the Steelers better than a C grade. We didn’t spend more in FA at CB because honestly with how loaded the draft is at that position it would be irresponsible of us too. Thats just one example.

 

This time of year most of the FA signings are plan B so they can basically draft BPA

 

Blah blah blah

 

He played about every LB position,....even ILB in the 3-4, but when they switched to 4-3 and tried Him at MLB He ,and they didn't like it, and We got Him . They did a big write up about this When We got Him.

 

Gerry Dulac said they signed Neal for depth, they might get their starting SS in the draft.

 

It means we can take the best player available.

 

I don't think Rooney inserts himself into the day to day offseason too much.

The sudden shift in off season philosophy is kind of telling of how many GM powers Tomlin actually has, contrary to popular belief, the GM is the GM on the Steelers...not the coach.

 

“Might”

And if they don’t

 

I think it's CB in the first

 

Puts a damper on the entire off season IMO. No accountability!

 

I could be remembering it incorrectly, but I don't think so. The way I remember it, he was an outside linebacker with the Jets, including playing one of the outside spots in a 3-4 his final season with them. I can look up more another time, but here is just the first article I found.

https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2002/04/05/James-Farrior-signs-with-Steelers/15481018046308/

Pro Football Reference has him listed at ROLB for one year, LB for two, ROLB for one more, then RLB his final season with the Jets. RLB is their designation for the strong-side outside linebacker in a 4-3.

 

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